1/72 Avrocar

[Frank3k]

I was rearranging the kit stash when the Fly Models 1/2 Avrocar Racer X kit fell and landed at my feet:



When I opened the box, I noticed that the two resin exhaust blade assemblies (one for each side) had lost some of the tiny blades at some point between the factory and my bench. I made an effort to reattach them, but it didn't look good. Instead, I measured the parts, CADed it up and printed it in PLA - it took less time than trying to get the CA to hold the fragile blades in place. Since it's a filament printer, I made the blades thicker. Still, good enough:



The interior bits went together quickly but I noticed that the blades stuck out from the body:



Unless I messed up the interior, the resin parts would have had the same issue. Cutting them down to size fixed the problem:



The two cockpits are barely visible, despite being nicely detailed in resin:



If I had wanted to, I could have sealed everything up and started painting, but the "landing gear"  was just a set of small resin caster wheels. I cut some landing gear bays and found some 1/144 MiG-23 landing gear that I could repurpose. The two saucer halves are glued together and under some weights (the fit isn't great). Tomorrow I'll start painting.

The kit comes with control vanes at the front (like in the final version of the Avrocar) but the original control disk looks better - I may print that up as well. I also thought of adding a tail of some sort. Let's see how I feel about it tomorrow.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Small enough to hide the fit issues and still look good! 

[Kerick]

This is different! The Racer X decals are wild! Nice job with the vanes. I bet this would be really cool in 1/48th.

[raafif]

Racers are a neat idea & racers need spoilers at the back

I have some circular stand bases (& hubcaps from my vacuum cleaner wheels) that make great saucers.

[Dr. YoKai]

If this is Racer X, I wonder what the Mammoth Car looks like...

I knew of the kit, didn't realize it was that detailed. Such a nifty little craft; such a pity it didn't work as hoped. Are you going with the Racer X scheme, or something else?

[apophenia]

Cool project! And nice to see design credit for the Avrocar right on the box! 

'Jack' Frost was, of course, the head of Avro Canada's Special Projects Group. I wonder who C.J. Williams was?

[Frank3k]

Thanks, guys. I don't think I'm going in the racer direction; that would be too much of a stretch, unless it was a race against drunk turtles.

I copied was inspired by Zenrat's build over at Whatif and found some skids from a Hasegawa Hughes 300 eggplane that I bought for parts:



and added the modified skids. I also closed off the holes I made for the landing gear. The skids look big, but they'll do:



I was hoping that the eggplane would be closer to 1/35 or 1/32 but it looks very close to 1/48. Since this is 1/72... close enough.

I'm not convinced that this model really represents any version of the Avrocar. Maybe the instructions are so vague that I've put some of the parts on wrong. The molding is OK, but it just doesn't look right - which makes it perfect for whiffing.

@raafif - I have a "flying saucer" that I made from two ancient (mid to late 1950s) Lindberg and Airfix aircraft stands that oddly fit this kit perfectly. I never went far beyond sanding and polishing the two stands, though.

@Stephen - I couldn't find anything about C.J. Williams. Odd.

[raafif]

Skids ?? why not floats 

[Frank3k]

I want to keep this slightly believable... "what if the control systems and other issues had been solved"

This is the first pass at the metal finish, to see what needs fixing. It's a quick and dirty first coat. I removed it and repainted (after fixing some problems):



This was going to be a quick and dirty fun project before I pick a longer, more complicated project. A modeling "amuse bouche". Buuut... I remembered that I had this old Planet kit:



I started it 25 years ago or more (shortly after it was released in 1999) and put it away when I became annoyed at the resin fit and finish. I decided this would be a good time to finish it, as a captured test companion to the Avrocar:



The underside shows some of the ugliness, although the BMW003 engine is nicely rendered:



One of the Me109 wheels is missing, so I replaced two of the wheels with a pair from an ancient Hasegawa Bf. 109 kit.

[Old Wombat]

Modellers Creep strikes again! 

[Kerick]

A little filler, a little sanding, it’ll be beautiful.

[Buzzbomb]

"amuse bouche".

Yes a term heard in daily conversation 

But twice in a week    a restaurant on the cruise I just disembarked from had this as one of the courses


Coming along just great.

[Frank3k]

Brian, I was thinking of "Mr. Creosote" when I decided to start this kit while picking a larger project.

The Avrocar is mostly painted. The aluminum paint I'm using is pretty old, so it may explain the graininess of the lighter aluminum color. I probably should have added extra thinner. The darker aluminum is newer and isn't as grainy.
 I added some faint weathering as well:



The red warning circle around the central fan looks wonky - the decal is shown going just inside of the intake, but the decal wasn't cooperating. It was easier to cut it into segments and apply the segments along the intake's outer panel line:



The white wing just below the saucer is a T-tail that I'm scratchbuilding.

[Frank3k]

I'm done with this one. It was an OK kit, but I had a lot of problems with the paint (and decals):

The canopies are very thick and not very clear; I gave them a coat of Future inside and out. This improved the clarity, but didn't help with the coke bottle effect. I painted the mating edges with a dark color (to prevent internal reflections in the plastic) but it didn't work well - at least from the side:



I figured the tail might help a bit with the stability issues. It's just some styrene cut to shape, with a rod to act as a pitot tube:



The stabilizers/elevators move, with the orange red strip indicating the start of the moving sections:



As for the BMW autogiro, I may work on it tomorrow, but it's not looking good - it may end up in its box for another decade.

[raafif]

 

[Old Wombat]

Good finish, Frank! Even if the final stages did fight you a bit. 


Re: The Planet Models BMW Flügelrad V-1 - Come on, man! You beat a Gecko kit into submission, you can beat this, too! 

[Robomog]

Like it, looks good !!   

Mog
>^-.-^<

[GTX_Admin]

 

[apophenia]

"amuse bouche".

Yes a term heard in daily conversation  ...

I love the idea of a modelling amuse-bouche ... something that just shows up unannounced and you accept what the chef provides (or, the shelf-of-doom, in this case) 

[Frank3k]

The BMW Flügelrad was like week old sushi... or escargot on a slice of Limburger cheese. Something in the resin just kept paint from sticking to it properly, even the 20+ year old primer. I saved the cockpit, but the rest is in the trash; good riddance,

[FAAMAN]

What a great bit of fun!! Well done, great finish too!!!!

[apophenia]

... I saved the cockpit, but the rest is in the trash; good riddance,

Ouch!     But, as Kryten said on Red Dwarf, "Bon appetit, bin!"